Half The Interest Challenge

mcardinalblue

Afternoon All

Right I have just worked out how much interest I pay every month on a £29,788.67 debt, its £199.25 this month :eek: , going up to £229 per month :eek: :eek: by December 07, because of credit card deals expiring.

According to the snowball calculator I need to pay back £2300 per month to halve my interest by December 07. This is way out of my reach.

However……. my plan of action is this

Try to find other credit card deals I can balance transfer to, I have tried a couple (EGG and the post office), but I have been declined and I don’t want to apply for credit to often as it is apparently bad for the credit score- however what I find is as you transfer and empty a card they often send new deals, so let’s hope.
Try to cut back as much on day to day expenses as possible.
Will have an extra £150 per month now my stepson has finished University to add.:T :T :T
Cut backs on areas of the budget were feasible.
Look into selling on Ebay and Amazon.

So I’m aiming to pay back £1300 per month.

Dr_Hook

mcardinalblue wrote: »

Try to find other credit card deals I can balance transfer to, I have tried a couple (EGG and the post office), but I have been declined and I don’t want to apply for credit to often as it is apparently bad for the credit score- however what I find is as you transfer and empty a card they often send new deals, so let’s hope.

This is the way I'm hoping to do this - repaying £12,500 in 7½ months just isn't going to happen. Though I am going to be throwing as much as I can at reducing the balance as well!

boo2905

Hi

It's the same for me too - I've just started to pay the interest on my credit card after 9 months so I would like to see if I can get it transfered. I also have interest to pay on my loan but with the loan repayments I think I have about £1700 to clear on that so that it is down to half of the interest.

I know that some of you have a lot more to pay than me so its going to be harder to try and meet the challenge but by trying to do a challenge like this its giving me a push to be really scrupulous with my money and check where every penny is going - my OH has suggested doing like him and getting a loan to consolidate because it's easier to make one payment than 3 but he's not the most clever of people and didn't realise that he would be paying an extra £2000 in interest on his loan to do this :rotfl:

Has anyone tried applying to AQA? They advertise for staff for half a day at a time and although it can take a couple of attempts I've heard that people make about £300 a month on it. :T

Dr_Hook

boo2905 wrote: »

Has anyone tried applying to AQA? They advertise for staff for half a day at a time and although it can take a couple of attempts I've heard that people make about £300 a month on it. :T

I've applied - sent my application form and test answers back on wednesday & just waiting to hear now. Been checking my emails every hour since!

I've made the first steps towards reducing my interest today too - my shiny new M&S card was waiting on the doormat when I got home so I called up and got the Morgan Stanley balance transferred. Didn't manage to transfer the whole amount as the new card only(!) has a £1,500 limit, but I'm making my next goal to have repaid the £191 left on the old card by the end of next month. I also checked my figures and the actual amount of interest I paid last month was £345.70 :eek: :eek: :eek: I can't believe my debt is costing me so much :mad: I'm now more determined than ever to reduce that interest!!! I'll update my sig at the end of the month once I've got all the statements in.

boo2905

Hi Dr Hook

Have you heard anything back yet from AQA? If not will you let me know when you do? I'm still waiting but heard nothing yet - could really do with the money to get the ball rolling.

Worked out that to reach my target I need to pay £165.63 off my credit card per month and £326.45 off my loan which is £202.13 more than my loan repayments! I need to get working with AQA

Dr_Hook

Nah, not heard anything back yet. Still checking my emails on a regular basis and will definitely let you know as soon as I hear something. Really hope I get in - the extra money will make a massive difference.

Dr_Hook

Woohoo!!! Just checked my emails and my AQA app was successful!

:T :dance: :T :dance: :T :dance: :T :dance: :T :dance: :T :dance: :T :dance: :T

I'm sooo chuffed, this should mean I can start chipping away at that debt free date!!! :cool:

Been a bit of a pants day so this has cheered me right up!:rotfl: _party_

Dr_Hook

Hi Boo

Was so excited last night that I forgot to ask if you'd heard anything yet

I've got my fingers crossed for you, let me know as soon as you hear something - good luck!

mcardinalblue

Good morning

Dr. Hook Congratulations on being accepted, by AQA I hope it turns out to be a good earner. Boo I hope you hear back soon.

Yesterday I started a 4 week study, to investigate whether Slimfast foods would be an acceptable diet fed at precisely my energy needs for the first two weeks and then a reduction of 300 calories per day for 2 weeks. This is a pilot for a study into a slimming drug that will be undertaken in the summer. Anyway what it means from a DFW perspective is I have been provided all my food for the next 4 weeks saving I think about £80 on food.

Also yesterday I spent my lunch hour getting quotes for my motor insurance which is due beginning of June. What a difference a year makes last year when the renewal came I couldn’t be bothered to see if the insurance was the best deal, and I just let it run through for another year. Also I notice now that have been paying an APR of 21.1% to pay for the insurance monthly. This time I’m getting quotes via insurance companies on Quidco, and I will pay up front saving a bit on interest, and hopefully have some cashback as well.

I have two empty credit cards Barclaycard and Morgan Stanley. The meanies at Morgan Stanley sent me a balance transfer deal of 5.9% APR for 5 months with a 3% charge. So I think if this is the best they can do I’ll ring them to cancel. I’m hopeful Barclaycard can offer a better deal.

boo2905

YEY!!!!

I got accepted too!!! :dance: :j :dance: :j :dance:

I'm well excited - all I've got to do is send the contract back and wait for them to send out the details!

I'm a bit in the dark about the whole self employment thing but I understand that you have to pay some tax and NI on the 31st July and 31st Jan so I'm going to put half of what I earn in a high interest savings account and I'll have the money and hopefully some left over. I'm on a roll.

SadGirl - we've not heard from you for a bit - how did your ebay auctions go?